Top Trauma Therapy Approaches Explained: IFS, ACT, DBT, Somatic Therapy

In this blog, we compare the top trauma therapy approaches, namely,  Internal Family Systems (IFS), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), and Somatic Therapy, and provide context in which these therapies are helpful to you as a Black, Indigenous, and Person of Color. 

Ready to figure out which therapy aligns with your specific emotional needs? 

Let’s dive in.

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Internal Family Systems suggests that it helps you recognize and connect with the internal parts of yourself that developed to protect you, especially the parts that learned to survive racism, shame, or social scrutiny.

Due to racial trauma, many of us develop protective mechanisms that take over in public to keep us safe. 

One part might be the high-achiever. Another might be the hypervigilant watcher. IFS helps you notice these parts, collaborate with them, and negotiate with one another, creating space for a calm, adult self to lead.

With Internal Family Systems therapy at Ashay Therapy Services, your chosen or assigned therapist guides you to notice a feeling or reaction and then asks you to describe the part of you behind it. 

With time, you get better at being curious instead of being critical. Over time, the protective parts loosen their grip because they feel heard and understood.

When should you prioritize IFS work? 

When you:

• Feel conflicted, like different versions of yourself show up in different rooms. As a Person of Colour, especially when you are living in a country where your dominant culture is not at play, you are holding multiple identities at once. IFS can also be really helpful for this
• React to familiar situations in ways that surprise or shame you.
• Want to understand the “why” behind your reactions instead of only managing symptoms.

  A trauma therapy approach like Internal Family Systems may not be so ideal for you if you require immediate stabilization for severe dissociation or an active suicidal crisis. 

  IFS, as well as other top trauma therapy modalities, tend to be a blend of top and bottom, which can be super helpful, especially as we BIPOC individuals are intellectualizers and very self-aware (maybe too much when it makes us think that we don’t need therapy).

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

After repeated slights, microaggressions, or being made to feel ‘less than’ because of your race, it’s natural to try to push feelings down or act as if nothing happened. ACT helps you sit with those feelings while still moving toward what matters to you.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy teaches you to accept your internal experiences while committing to actions that align with your values.

Additionally, ACT encourages the feeling and still takes steps toward what matters to you. It is practical and behavioural.

A typical Acceptance and Commitment Therapy session can look like: 

• Clarifying what matters to you: family, work, honesty, safety, and picking tiny, measurable actions that move you toward those values.
•  Noticing thoughts and sensations without being driven by them.
• Developing psychological flexibility, rather than just rigid thinking and way of being, which at times can cause a lot of the pain that we experience

You’ll know ACT is working when your body reacts differently, when small actions aligned with your values start feeling natural, and when you notice progress without needing to feel ‘fixed’.

Here are a couple of questions to ask a therapist who does Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to determine that they are a good fit for you.

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy

Have you ever had a coworker call you “aggressive” for simply disagreeing?

Or someone tells you, “You’re so articulate!” if being intelligent is a surprise?

Or hear “Your English is so good” as if you weren’t born and raised here?

You know that split second when your body reacts before you even have time to think and you’re deciding whether to shut down, explode, or swallow it (again)?

That is a situation that we would recommend you do DBT for.

Being a skills-based approach and one of the top trauma therapy approaches for Black People, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy is especially powerful because it teaches you:

• Emotional regulation — so you can respond instead of reacting on autopilot.
• Distress tolerance — for the moments when you can’t change the situation but still need to stay grounded.
• Interpersonal effectiveness — setting strong boundaries and communicating clearly without shrinking yourself.
• Mindfulness — staying present in your body instead of replaying the harm.

You should prioritize DBT if you:

• Struggle with regulating your emotions
• Find it hard to hold boundaries with coworkers, family, or partners.rd
• Easily shut down during communication and want tools to stay present and empowered.

But if the issue comes from one specific old memory that keeps replaying, DBT may not be the fastest option.

A typical Dialectical Behaviour Therapy session with our expert DBT therapists in Calgary, Nisha and Husainat, can look like exploring skills practice. 

You may role-play a boundary conversation, learn breathing and grounding tools, use the DEAR MAN skills to improve your communication, as well as create stepwise plans for tough interactions at work or with family.

If you tend to have frequent explosive or shutdown reactions or struggle to hold boundaries with coworkers, family, friends, or partners, then DBT should be on your list.

Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) 

Accelerated Resolution Therapy! 

By some people’s opinion, Accelerated Resolution Therapy is voodoo, but by Ashay Therapy standards, Accelerated Resolution Therapy can be an effective therapeutic tool for getting past very traumatic memories.

When done right, ART is ideal if you’re carrying a few vivid, painful memories that keep replaying and you want relief quickly, without years of talking.

A common drawback of Accelerated Resolution Therapy is that when done wrong, one runs the risk of retraumatization.

This is why it is important to prioritize licensed experts in Accelerated Resolution Therapy to ensure that your healing journey is progressive.

An Accelerated Resolution Therapy session may look like: You recall a memory while the therapist guides your eyes or imagery process.

The goal is to change how the memory is stored so it no longer triggers a severe reaction.

You should highly consider ART therapy if you:

• Have one or two vivid memories that continue to disrupt your daily life.
• Want relatively fast symptom reduction.
• Experience an underlying thought pattern such as “I’m not good enough.”
• Have gained self-regulation skills/destabilization tools and are ready to process trauma
• Remember, I mentioned that when Accelerated Resolution Therapy is not properly done, it can cause you to be retraumatized? 

If you are in a crisis that needs stabilisation first, or if your trauma is widespread and complex without an anchor memory, it is important to work with an Accelerated Resolution Therapist. A key question you must make sure your ART therapist answers clearly is what safety and stabilization look like in their ART practice.

Somatic Therapy 

And last but not least, Somatic Therapy.

Because trauma is not only cognitive, as in your mind, Somatic therapy is one of the top trauma therapy approaches that helps you heal by working with the trauma living in your muscles, breath, posture, nervous system, and reflexes.

It is especially powerful for racial trauma, microaggressions, chronic stress, generational trauma, and experiences that make your body tense or shut down, even when your mind wants to move forward.

A typical session with Nisha, our lead Somatic Therapist at Ashay Therapy in Calgary, might include:

• Tracking sensations in the body with curiosity

• Breathwork to regulate your nervous system

• Grounding techniques that bring you back into your body

• Movement or posture work to release stored tension

• Tools to recognize when your body is in “survival mode.”

If you consistently feel on edge or hyper vigilant or want to feel safer in your body, then Somatic Therapy should be on your shortlist.

Bottom-Up vs Top-Down Therapies

Bottom-up therapy is helpful if you tend to identify as being too self-aware or if you know what it is that your issue is, but still feel stuck. 

While Top Down therapy is helpful if you lean more towards analytical and want to figure out the why. 

Now that you understand the key differences between these therapy approaches, I hope you’re able to make a much more informed decision about what support you need and what direction your healing might take.

Now that you understand the key differences between these therapy approaches, I hope you’re able to make a much more informed decision about what support you need and what direction your healing might take.

If you still have questions or want guidance choosing the right modality for your specific experience, why not book a complimentary consultation with us? It’s a free space to get your questions answered and understand what type of therapy may benefit you the most.

Ready to take that next step? Your first consultation is on us! 

You can also try our Therapy Matching Tool to get a personalized therapy /therapist recommendation for your emotional needs.

Your healing matters, and you deserve support that meets you exactly where you are.